Snow Lake, Gem Lake — Saturday, May. 14, 2016

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

We started off a lovely hike to Snow lake mid-morning on Saturday. There were quite a few cars at the trailhead, but still lots of space for more. We were going to try to make it to Gem lake, but this was a fairly spontaneous decision, and so were prepared to turn around if the snow conditions became bad. There were some wildflowers blooming early on in the hike, and then those same flowers appearing further on in the hike as you hike up the switchbacks towards the ridge separating you from Snow Lake. We saw a group hiking down after spending the night at Snow Lake, which they said was 'cold'. We also saw several people with skis, planning on doing some backcountry skiing. The trail becomes snow-covered fairly early on, and only gets more snow covered the higher you go. There are portions where the switchbacks are completely covered in snow, and people have decided to ignore the trail and go straight up. The lake itself is mostly covered with snow, with only several areas of blue poking through. The trail to Gem lake goes around the lake, to the right. We came across one section where the trail was dangerously close to the lake, potentially over the lake (and melting). When about half way (or more) around the trail, we decided to stop and head back. This was right before the trail drops down a cliff to a footbridge over a river leading out of snow lake. A couple people with ice axes continued on, but I would not suggest continuing at this time without an ice axe. About one meter of the trail is a tiny ledge (a foot or so), with a sheer drop to one side and a wall of snow about 5 feet high on the other. We also came across a bunch of garbage on a flat near Snow lake. This included half-eaten bags of bread, candy wrappers, energy bars, dirty socks, a tarp filled with garbage, and an abandoned fairly large tent with no poles. We gathered up all the garbage and brought it down to the trailhead, but did not have a way of bringing the large tent down with us. We folded it and left it beside a tree. I am very disappointed in the people that left the garbage strewn there for animals to eat. If you are headed up to Snow lake, please take a look for the tent. I wrote down GPS coordinates that I'll hopefully post soon.